ISSUE 17 | Spring 2025

KEEP THE FIRES BURNING

A NEWSLETTER BY AND FOR CALIFORNIA PRISONERS

Tenemos una version en espaiiol de este boletin
informativo! Por favor escribanos si quiere una
copia de esta edicion o una edicion previa o si
quiere ser agregado a nuestra lista de correo.

We have a Spanish translation of this
newsletter! Please write us for a copy of this
or previous editions, or to be added to our
mailing list.

PO. Box 12594
Oakland, CA 94604

NOTE FROM THE EDITORS, ADAPTED FROM OUR
OUTSIDE NEWSLETTER:

We are somerimes at los for what to say: The genocide in
Gaza continues, an enire people on the verge of death as we
write this. Things in the U.S. have escalated in intensicy and
pace since our last newslewer. Material conditions tighten, we
keep doing triage, but part of the escalaion is tha ics shock-
and-awe campaign that malkes it hard to nor simply traffck in
vietimhood and outrage.

Well, know this: we at AboSol are steadfst and growing, We're
only gerting sharper. And whatever we report on here isn'
merely another outrage or calamity but a chapter or opening
in 2 fight already engaged. These are bartlefield reports,
‘community bulletins. These are opportunitie, not epitaphs.

IN THE NEWS

Leonard Peltier Is
Home!

Good newsis precious! Political prisoner Leonard
Peltier was released to home confinement on
February 18th. He was a dedicated organizer

with the American Indian Movement (AIM) who
was framed for the kiling of two FBI agens in
1975, Afier 49 years inside prison and following a
commutation of hislfe sentence, Leonard recurned
home to his family and communicy. The act of
permics Pelier, who s 80 and has been

i health for years, to serve his remaining
days i home confinement.

Oakdand Abolition & Solidarity + PO, Box 12594 + Oakland, CA 94604 + (510) 406-2500

RIP Bilal Sunni Ali

Baba Bilal, a former Black Panther, member of the Black
Liberation Army, and policical prisoner, transitioned this

past December. Bilal Sunni-Al was a Muslim New Afrikan
revolutionary, and accomplished jazz, blues, and spoken word

artst whao used creativity to inspire and challenge the status quo.

Chuckawalla Closed. Or Is
It Really?

Valley Sate Prison in November. Although the facilty iself s
CDCrs capacity

in which a skeleton staff

A photo taken a the
Dublin protest on March
Ist. About 100 peaple fom
she facility. Photo by
Braoke Anderion

Oakdand Abolition & Solidasity * PO. Box 125

CDCr fciliies in “warm shutdown”

as eroding, but like all of

boost the cowns viabilicy via the carceral economy;

Chuckatwalla Vally Stae Prison near the town of Blyhe in
County which borders the Colorado River. The

Eastern Riverside

Town officals have hired a PR firm for the first time ever and

are lobbying the stae to instead close CRC-Norco, another

wutes, such as reopening as an

fieled by US imperialism).”

Hundreds Turn Out
Against ICE Detention at
FCI-Dublin

ICE (Immigeation and Customs Enforcement) offcias have
al prison in Dublin several times to

toured the now closed fed

gauge the fasibilicy of reopening it 1 an ICE detention center.

T

“non-citizens.” FCI-Dublin is only available because ofits recent

closure due to widespread and longeerm sexual abuse of ts women

prisoners by guards and the cover up of this by the administration.

of themselves until they are physically dismantled, until then they

are prison capacity in reserve.

Oakland, CA 94604 + (510) 406-2500
Urgent! CDCr Is Trying To
Ban Physical Mail

‘We'e gotten word that CDCr is rying to do what we've long
feared: banning physical mail. This i incredibly serious and
dangerous

In February, CDCr signed a new 189 million dolla, G+ year
contract with Aventiv/Securus. As far as we understand it so far,
CDCr is planning to implement pilot program in 10 facilties
that will sare his summer, where the current tables will be:
replaced by newer versions, and it seems that the plan is for all
mail in all of CDCr to be accessed only through these tables by
early 2026 Many detailsare nor yer clear to us, because with all
the things that CDCr docs it does withous any real transparency or
accountabiliy

Physical mail bans have been spreading across prisons and jails
across the country since 2018 in the wake of the last national
prison strike and with them a tail of increased censorship,
surveillance, institutional control, and misery. Some places in the
LS. have all mail scanned and reprinted, and some have even now
put a complete ban on all physica ltters whatsoever. Many places
firs artempred o ban all physical mail including books, and were
forced to walk back their policies only by pressure from outside
familis and abolitionists.

The banning of physical mail is done under the guise of stopping
contraband, but we al know how most contraband ges in-
through the guards and staff, What it really is about is tightening
the vice around prisoners necks even more than it already s,
keeping prisoners isolaed, and opening up new avenues for the
prison system to surveil, censor, and realiate

“The use of mass surveillance has been increasing on the outside
justas on the inside. Digita tools are becoming more powerful
and casier o use, which gives the oppresive police state previously
unheard-of capacity to aggregate and analyze data. By forcing

all mail o be digital, his allows it allto be easily fed through

and stored in censoring and surveillance systems. The content of
peoples messages and calsis collected and analyzed in order to
build profiles on people and make it casier to monitor and retaliate
against those who are speaking out or pushing back.

“Tablets have been rolled out using the lure of increased access to
media and other postive and fun things to use to engage with

the world and pass the time- who wouldsit want this! But the
normalization of the use of this technology on the inside (just like
the outside) also serves o increase the ease with which people’s
activitie, interests and messages can be logged- and what people
have access to can be controlled.

When we've invesigated these companies that contract with the
prisons to give tablees and phone services, we've found that they

ofien actually sellchemselves no as communications companies,
bt as sureillance companies that we commnicasions provsion to
gather intellgence

On the ourside, we've experienced an inrease in online censorship
thatis often being done by automated systems chat punish you or
prevent you from sending messages if those messages meet some.
unknown critera, and without any clear recourse. Automated
censorship ofien involves major decisions being made by a secret,
extremely biased algorithm that is ofien almost impossibl to
appeal or even understand. Beyond being scary, it also endlessly
infuriaring and stupid

On the inside, we've heard reports of messages being automarically
blocked from being sent because they contain words relating to the
facility conditions, such as the word lockdown,” and experienced
seemingly completely mundane lectes being rejected with no
explanation or way to prevent it. These companies ofien employ
Hists of banned words that can be customized to individuals.

Wete secing calling systems in other sates where you have to
register a number to even be able to cal it, We'e hearing in
different places in and out of California about strct word limits on
messages, applications to send messages that are almost impossible
0 use, that lose your messages, that can only be downloaded on
smariphones. People are forced to register their information to be
able to use the applications or they can' write o people inside,
which creates huge bartiers and gives much more control and
surveillance over who can send letters to prisoners than is the case
with traditional physical mail.

These apps that the prison systems are forcing people to download
have even shown evidence of being essentially spyware o the
devices of the people using them on the outside, looking acall

of the private data on these people’s phones,such as exts and
pictures!

On top of that, physical mail bans are cruely beyond belief
To never touch what loved one has also touched. To sentence
someone to never be able to hold a card by their kid, or leter
from their lover,or to put a piece of ar on their wall.

IFlertrs are scanned and reprinted, they are ofien done badly- just
one side of two sided leters, blursy, parts cropped out, only in
black and white,etc- and then the originals are often destroyed!
In many places, all the mail is kept only as digital copies, only
accessible on tablets But as we know - ablets are trated as 3
privilege - and any privilge can and will be taken auay when it
serves the insevution!

Webe now heard of a leas one jal in the country that now scans
all mail, destroys t,then uploads those scans o tablets, where
those scans are accessble t those prisoners for only 30 days- and
then it deleted forever.

Weall know that there i no real accountabiliy behind prison
doors and prison systems do whatever they can get away with.
Even those on the outside who are watching as closely as we can
are often unable to figure out what's going on, much les force the
prisons to stop. And the more the prisons have control over how
and what information gets in and ou, the worse that will be.

This MUST be opposed. Once they have something like this in
place, they will never willingly go back. This would mark a change

Oakdand Abolition & Solidarity + PO, Box 12594 + Oakland, CA 94604 + (510) 406-2500
in prisoners’abiliy to communicate forever, and would lkely have
downstream consequences we can't even yet imagine.

‘Weteseill rying 10 understand fully what's going on, so please
send us any further information you have, as well as any thoughts
and experiences you want to share. Please indicate if what you
share is something youre willing 1o have published publicly, and if
youd want your name attached to it if so.

We ate working hard to spread the word on the outside, please
help us spread the word on the nside.

This cant be allowed to stand.

‘T Was Silenced’: San
Quentin News Editor-
In-Chief Fired for Prison
Reform Efforts

Below are passages from the above-tidled article published on April
7t in Prism by Steve Brooks, the former editor of San Quentin News
W bad 1o excerpt it for space, but please write s f you would like o
receive he full riginal arice.

“When 1 took over as editor-in-chicf of San Quentin News (SQN)
in carly 2023, T was at the height of my rehabilcaive journey:
Twas disciplinary-free, had a college degree and vocational

Inage from artct.

training, and was part of many sl help groups. ()

On March 17, 2023, Gov. Gavin Newsom came to San Quentin
and announced his plans for a histric transformation of San
‘Quentin State Prison (SQP). As editor-in-chief of the newspaper,
was able to ateend. (..)

() For the first ime, it seemed the system was acknowldging
the damage it was doing to its own people. Newsom sounded like
he sincerely wanted to ransform San Quentin's hyper-punitive
environment into one based on humanity and homecoming,

() A reporter from KQED behind me asked the governor
whether the advisory group he planned 1o create as parc of this
rebranding would include people currently incarcerated in SQP:
Newsom replied yes, sating they wanted to incorporate our views
in their reform effores.

Hearing chis, 1 thought: 1 have 30 years of ived carceral
experience. 1 should galvanize a group of incarcerated stakeholders
o vocalize our isues. So, that nigh, along with my cellmate
Anhur Jackson, I co-founded The People In Blue (TPIB), a group
dedicated to reducing harm, creating safer communicies and
minimizing Californias need and overreliance on prisons

() T t0ld reporters who asked what we though of the California
Modelthat a new building was not enough to change the culture
in prison.

In June 2023, T expanded on these thoughts in an article published
in Marin Independent Journal,staing that instead of sinking more
money into a wasteful $14.2 billion annual budger, the California

Oakdand Abolition & Solidarity + PO. Box 12594 + Oakland, CA 94604 + (510) 406-2500
Deparcment of Corrections and Rehabiliation should be
investing in community-based resources to increase the likelihood
of incarcerated individuals revurning home. Around dhis time,
TPIB also strted wriding ics own report and recommendations
forreform in order to provide an incarcerated perspective to the
governor that were based around collaborat
between TPIB members and correctional scaf. In Seprember 2023,
TPIB released this repors, which identified concrete reforms such
as implementing mandatory financial lteracy programs, providing
healthier foods through the instiuiorss culinary syseem, and
bringing back wellness iniiatves like weightifing programs, food
co-ops, and gardens. Meanwhile, Newsons 21.member advisory
council continued to meet n secret, evenvually delaying the release
of their report.

() Some prison administrtors were refrring to TPIB 252
securiny threa because our peliminary repore cied history dting
back to George Jackson, a Black activist kiled in SQP i 1971

But TPIB s nota security theear. I is a diverse coaliion of
incarcerated people using lived experiences to speak truth about
prison reform. The ruth s that some adinistrators just don't
wantincarcerated people to be able to express their opinions

() The situation only worsened when some members of
Newsoms advisory council acknowledged that they were impressed
by our work. ()

On Dec. 8, 2023, 1 was siing ac my desk in the newsroom when
custody staffcame and asked me to step outside. Two custody staff
members told me to gather all my dhings and leave the media center,
which I was then banned from. I was old I could no longer write
for SQN. I was banned from participating in the Ear Husde and
Uncuffed podeasts. T was even banned from attending meetings with
the San Quentin chapter of the Socity of Professional Journalists
that met n the media center. | was slenced.

Three weeks later, [ received a rules-violation repor alleging
overfamilarity” with a prison volunteer. | knew it was a filse
report, buc | was found guilty anyway. I filed an appeal, and

the California Deparcment of Corrections and Rehabilitation
overturned my conviction and ordered the violaion to be reheard
o dismissed in the interest of justice. I received a new hearing in
June 2024 and was found not guilty six months larer. Despite this,
upon my exoneration, | was told by an angry custody offcer that |
would not be going back to my job.

s Newsom admitted in his March press conference, incarcerated
people and staffalike have suffered trauma from the toric prison
system. We suffered through a faal COVID-19 ourbreak. We
suffered through being warchoused in dangerously overcrowded
facilties without enough rehabilitation programs. As someone
who has been a pare of this suffeing, | wanted to help create real
reforms. T wanted to create a healthier system for public saery,
healing, and getting people home to their familie. used my

voice and my pen o help facliate change, and some prison
administrators dida' like ir. They didn' want to hear what I had o
say, 50 they took away my platform and labeled me a danger to the
prison. What are these callsfor reform but smoke and mirrors if
wefe slenced when we try to make them a realiy?

Update on Repressive
Policy Changes in the U.S.

From January to present, Donald Trump has issued presidenial
decrees to restice civil rights and increase mass deportations.
Exccutive orders were also used extensively by previous presidents
like FDR, Obama, and Biden. Order 9066 in 1942 stated

that anyone considered a “threat to national security” could be
detained and forcibly removed to concentration camps. The basis
for this order was the Alien Encmies Act of 1798, invoked once
again by Trump on March 15, 2025,

Exccutive orders can be overturned if judge decides that they
violate a law or the Constitution. But as anyone caught up in the
American legal system knows, reversing decisions can take years.
Exccutive Order 9066 was not terminated until 1976. Knowing
this, Trump’s approach has been to issue decrees first and fumble
for legal justifications later — and as a result, he's gotten the jump
on opposia forces that are struggling co keep up. This is an
overview of some recent policies

TARGETING TRANSGENDER PEOPLE

‘The novelist Umberto Eco grew up in FascistIaly. In 1995, he
lised common characterisics of fascis societies in his essay Ur-
Fascism: Fourteen ways of ooking a a blackshirr. Number 12, he
wites, is machismo: “since both permanent war and heroism are
difficult games to play, the Ur-Fascist transfers his willto power
o sexual matters. This i the origin of machismo (which implies
both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of
nonstandard sexual habits, from chasety to homosexuality)”

On s firse day in office, Trump issued Executive Order 14168
withdrawing federal recognition of tansgender people. The
order denies the existence of both trans and intersex people,
staring that gender is based on biological sex at birch and
cannot be changed. Subsequent orders have targeted trans
peoples healthcare funding, cvil rights protections, and their
participation in school and spors.

Order 14168 also called to amend the Prison Rape Elimination
Act (PREA) to ensure that “males are not decained in women's
prisons or housed in womenis detention centers.” The order
eliminates funding for rans medical care i federal prisons.
Curtently, PREA (28 CFR, Section 115) requires prisons to
account for LGBT prisoners’ perception of their own safety when
placing them into housing. PREA also prohibits policies that
house transgender and intersex prisoners based “exclusively on
external genital anatomy.

Widespread seual abuse at the Central California Women's
Facilic in Chowchilla and ac FCI Dublin shows that state and
federal compliance with PREA i poor, and is enforcement
mechanisms are weak. Punishmen for noncompliance consists
only of small reductions in grant funding from the U.S,
Department of Justice. In California, SB132 s intended to
provide an additional layer of protection for trans prisoners,
allowing them to request appropriate housing and to be searched

Oakdand Abolition & Solidarity + PO, Box 12594 + Oakland, CA 94604 + (510) 406-2500
i accordance with their gender. Prisoners requeseing a transfer
through SB132 must go through an interview process, and the
transfer isseill subjec to vote by the Instiutional Classification
Committee (ICC).

Anti-trans groups in California lobbied against SB132 by
claiming it would endanger women who are not trans. This
divide-and-conquer strategy is false and harmiful - and it has now
endangered the rights of all prisoners regardless of their gender.
On April 23, the DOJ terminated all funding for the National
PREA Resource Center, which tracks the results of PREA
investigations

The ACLU, GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD),
and the Transgender Law Center (based in Oakland, California)
filed several lawstits challenging Order 14168: Kingdorn 1
Trump, Moe v. Trump, Doe . Bondi, and Jones v, Bondi. A D.C.
courtissued a resraining order to block the transfer of rans
women to men's prisons. In March, The Giuardian reported that
atleast two trans women had been transferred anyway. In March,
the court ordered the Bureau of Prisons to recurn them. Kingdon
& Trump now secks class action status to represent al prisoners in
BOP custody who expericnce gender dysphoria and are receiving
gender-affieming health care. Another lawsuit, Orr 1. Trump,
challenges the State Departments refusal o issue passports

for wansgender people. On April 18, a federal judge issued a
preliminary injunction requiring the State Departmen to allow
the plaintiffs o obtain passports with their correct gender

Alawyer with GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders wrote
in April thac while challenging anti-trans policies in courc

is important, “the people may ultimately be the ones who
adjudicate justice with their voices and actions.”

OUTSOURCING MIGRANT PRISONS

Trump campaigned on the promise to deport 1 million people
within bis first year in office. His administration’s atcempt to
make good on this promise has resulted in fewer remouals than
under Obama and Biden's deportation machines, but many
more people incarcerated. The U.S. Congress is flly complicit,
authorizing $485 million in March to expand Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations.

Deportations that have occurred have been media spectacles -
intended o cause fear and lead people o leave “voluntarily.”

In March, Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to justify the
abduction of over 280 people to El Salvador, including sheet
metal worker Kilmar Abrego Garcia and professional soccer
player Jerce Reyes. Many were Venezuelan citizens sceking
asylum. In cheir deportation cases, the government argued that
they were gang members based on confidential information and
supposedly gang-related tattoos including the Real Madrid Cluby
de Fitbol logo, the Chicago Bulls logo, and an autism awareness
ibbon. The administration later admitted to “administracive
errors” but insists chat it is powerles to return the abductees

The U.S. government i paying the government of El Salvador
millions of dollars to house abductees in its prisons. Both Teump.
and Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele proclaimed the operation

a5 a victory against gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13),
which Trump recently declared a “foreign terrorist organization.”
But eports from Salvadoran newspaper E/ Faro and U.S,
journalis José Olivares revealed that behind the media spectacle,
this was a murally beneficial deal beween two authoricarian
presidents. Trump deported atleast two members of MS-13 who
could have testified about scret negotiarions becween the Bukele
government and MS-13, which agreed to reduce violence and

£ bk Bkl n e 2019 preidenisl oo i xchcge o
inancial incentives.

On May 2, a federal judge ruled that the administracion's use of
the Alien Enemies Act is unconstiwutional. I remains to be scen
what impact this decision will have, beyond confiming what we
already know is unjust - the federal government has il made
0 attempe 1o reurn Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador.
despite an order from the U.S. Supreme Court.

USING ICE TO SUPPRESS PALESTINE
SOLIDARITY

Local opposition to the ongoing Palestinian genocide has been
rebranded asa U.S. immigration issue. Shocking images of
abductions by ICE agents have been used to intimidate people
into sience. They are also a move to regain control of the
narracive, said journalist Sam Husseini in April, by “wrning the
page” on genocide just a Israclintensifies its blockade and aerial
attacks on Gaza, “Rubio, Trump and company are obviously
attacking the Firse Amendment i service of stacl genocide,”
Husseini wrote, “but their strategy is politicaly effective: Cast
Palestine as another immigration issue, so they can pretend to
be America First and not — as even some ightwinger critics are
charging — lsracl Firs.”

On January 29, Trump issted Executive Order 13899,
“Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism.” This order
blamed the U.S. student movement against genocide in

‘Gaza s the cause of an “unprecedented wave” of antisemitic
discriminacion. Order 13899 builds upon the Biden
administeation's hostlity to the student anti-war movement,
as wellas the groundwork lid by Zionist lobbyists to redefine
speech ertical of Isracl s an antisemitic act. The curtent
administeation has taken this a step further, decreeing that
solidarity with Palestine is equivalent to “endorsing terrorist

Equaring dissent with terrorism urns activism into a deportable
offense. Beginning in March, the administration began revoking
visas and detaining students using ICE agents, who in many
cases have been masked and wearing plain clothes. ICE abducted
Columbia student activists Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen
Mahdawi, who are both Palestinian green card holders; as well
a5 Boston graduate student Riimeysa Oiitk, who published

an areicle clling for her university o cut its financial ties o
Iracl. All of them were sent to ICE detention in Louisiana
Several other suudent visa holders were detained afier Columbia
University allowed ICE on campus to execute search warrans.

Oakdand Abolition & Solidarity + PO, Box 12594 + Oakland, CA 94604 + (510) 406-2500
Mahmoud Khalil’ case has drawn mainstream media coverage.
His green card was revoked under the Immigration and
Nauwralization Act of 1952, which permits the government to
deport immigrants if the US. Secretary of State decermines
that their actvities support “world
“adverse foreign policy consequences” for the United States

No evidence is required to justify these claims. An immigration
judge determined that Khalil may be deported after Secretary of
State Marco Rubio declared that his presence in the U.S. creates
a “hostile environment for Jewish students.” Unfortunately, his
decision is not surprising: immigeation judges are not pare of the
judicial branch of U.S. government —they serve at the pleasure
of the president and are employees of the Justice Deparement, an
execuive branch agency. For now, Khalil remains in ICE custody
in Louisiana with pending writ of habeas corpus in New Jersey
federal coure. ICE denied his request to be present at the birth
of his frst child. In a leter to his son, Deen, Khalil wrote:

mmunism” or would have

L have come to recognize the look in the eyesof every father
i this detention center..But my absence s not wnigue. Like
other Palesinian futhers, 1 was separated from you by racit
regimes and distant prisons. In Palestine, his pain is part of
daily life. Babies are born every day without their fathers — not
because sheir futhers chose 10 leave, but because ey are taken
by wan, by bombs, by prison cells and by the cold machinery of
oceupation.”

On April 30, Mohsen Mahdawi was eleased on bond. Riimeysa
Opariek was also relased i carly May while her caseis pending
in Louisiana

FINAL THOUGHTS

We've been watching these developments from our vantage
point in California, where politicians have attempred to play on
both sides in the unfolding chaos. Newsom announced in April
that California surpassed Japan as the fourth-largest economy

in the world and chat California vill challenge the Trump
administeation over its restrietions on free trade. Meanwhile,
Newsom has hosted right-wing figures on his podcast and
suggested that rans women should be barred from sports
Auomey General Rob Bona has also fashioned himself as a
champion of immigrants and the working class who is unafraid
0 sue the Trump administration. Yet both these figures preside
over CDCr : the largest law enforcement agency in the United
States after the NYPD and U.S. Customs and Border Proteetion,
alaboratory of cruclty that uses “gang validation” techniques akin
o those employed against Venezuclan migrants to jusify soliary
confinement and orture. We view California as “exceptional” ac
our own peril — and we wont be sarisfied with self-congratulaory
claims of “resistance” from its leaders.

What do you think? Let us know your thoughts on these policies,
and if you would like to receive more information about the
policies themsclves or the liigation against them.

Prisoners and Hostages:
Notes on the Ceasefire in

Palestine
AN INTRODUCTION AND UPDATE FROM THE EDITORS:

This s a picce we wrote for our February outsde newslerser. Wete
republished it here in full, with more picture. Since this piece was
originally written, isrel hus broken the ceaseire agreement, ceasing
the exchange of prisoners and reswming its horific genocide. At the
time of us writing this, in carly May, the people in Gaza are being
starved 10 death by the israli blockade, with many on the verge of
death. Words contine o elude us to describe the sher scope and.
horror of what i being done.

I this piece, we ried 10 speak specifically to the resistances successes
in pursuing a strategy of prisoner exchanges o fee its people. This
s ot he first time the reisance has succesfully captured isnacli
soldiers and forced isnsel 1o relase people from s orture dungeons
and it is lkely not the last

Irael continuesto reise 10 accept e terms requived tofe all o s oun
prisoners, because to dos0 equires agreing to sap thei genacide. We are
Shown over and over how there is no just or i peace for Palestinians
withou libenaton from srael. We think o of times when resstance
Jighters have been asked why shey hase taken up arms, and many have
sai that it was becase they realized el was gong 10 kil them
regareiess s0 why ot fight back?

s we make this call 10 ot we do ot ask you to free us from
prisons: that is the task of the resstance andl it will take care of it

- Letter from the National Prisoners’ Movement
in Palestine, November 29, 2023

The resistance keeps its promises. A ceaseire went into effect
in Gaza on the morning of January 19th which promises the
cessation of millary operations, withdrawal of Isacli forces from
Gaza, and the release of thousands of Palestinian captives from
Iracli detention centers. This is a monumental achievement for
the forces that have been bravely and steadfasly fighting the US
backed, funded, and enabled zionist genocide, and a relief to the
approximately two million people who've been living under Israli
bombs for 15 months.

There is much to be said about this agreement, and still many
looming uncertainics. At the time of writing, Jenin i under siege
as ionist forces escalate violence in the West Bank, and alarming
proclamations about Gaza are coming out of the Trump admin.
We want 1o celebrate the achievement of the Paestinian fighters,
‘and villlimic our analyical purpose here to some reflections on
the Toufan al-Ahrar, the “Flood of the Fice”, prisoner exchanges.
These releases are a prominent part o the ceasefie agreement, a
clear point of victory for the Palestnian resistance, and there is
much to be earned from chis for our own context, Sectler colonial
naratives about captives, for example, are similar in all parts

Oakdand Abolition & Solidarity + PO, Box 12594 + Oakland, CA 94604 + (510) 406-2500
“Palestinians celebrate the release of me 90 prisonersse iee by lnsel in the carly hours of Jan. 20, 202

pon their arival aboard Red Cross

s i the occupied West Bank town of Beitunica, on the outskits of Ramallah.” (CBSNeuws), Photo by ZAIN JAAFAR | AFP via Getty Images

of the so-called “West” and we have to continue exposing and
deconstructing them. There is lso much to be learned from the
way that the Palestinian resistance steadfistly centersits captive
peaples, and fighs for their freedom.

NOTABLE FACTS ABOUT THE PRISONER
EXCHANGE AGREEMENT IN THE
CEASEFIRE

In the weeks since the agreement was reached, trucks full of
humanitarian aid are finally starting to enter the Gaza Strip and
enormous caravans of displaced peaple have begun to return o
their homes in the North of Gaza, In keeping with the substantial

prisoner exchange aspects of the agreement, buses of freed captives,

operated and escorted by the International Committee of the Red
Cross, are beginning to arrive in Gaza and the West Bank, greeted
by fierce celebaion.

to know about the prisoner exchanges that are already
underway (from Palestine Chronicle):

“Du
prisoners, including 250 serving lfe sentences, and around
1,000 prisoners detained afier October 7, 2023. Hamas will

000

ing the frs phase, Lirael will rlease approsimately

release 33 Liracl detainees (alive o dead), including civilian

women, soldiers, children under 19, elderly individuals over
50, and

of Palestinian prisone

ounded or il civilians, in exchange for the release
y bracli
willrelease 30 Palestinian chil

from Lraeli juils. For ev

detainee released, lira ren and

women from prison.

In exchang

for the release of 30 elderly and ill Palestinian

mas will release al lving Tiracl detainees who
ill release 50

Palestinian prisoners for cach Iirali soldier released by Hama.

In the sixth week of the agreement, Iivael will elease 47
prisoners fram the “Shalit Deal,” who were re-arresed afier

their release in 2011

If the number of iving Iiracl detainees released does not reach
33, the remaining number will be made up of bodics. In
veturn, Lirael will release all women and childven detained afier

October 7, 2023, by the sixth week.

Palestinian prisoners released under the agreement will not be

re-arrested for the same charges for which they were

detained. They will not be re-arresed to complete the remainder
of their sentences. Palestinian prisoners will not be required to
sign any documents as a condition for their release.

Oakdand Abolition & Solidasity * RO. Box 12594 + Oakland, CA 94604 + (510) 406-2500
A ALQussam fighter (Hamass miliary wing) lesing a young child
ry holding his gun.

“This seris of eleases il significantly reduce the population of
Palestinians caged by the Iracl regime, which before the ceasefire
numbered well over 10,000, There are many uncertainties around
how these exchanges will continue to unfold, and what the
increasing milicary aggeession in the West Bank portends. On
February 9th, as ' completing final edits Pm seeing reports of a
brotal IOF raid in Nur Shams. Sl this ceasefre agreement musc
be seen as a victory for the Paletinian resiscance. It i clar in the
fatios of exchange that Palestinian fighters leveraged a substancial
demand and secured the freedom of 30 - 50 Palestinians for every
Tracl released.

DECONSTRUCTING THE NARRATIVE

Since October 7ch the sionist and mainstream media has paid
undue focus on the “hostages” that were taken by Hamas while
systematically minimizing and obscuring the ongoing brutality
visited upon Gaza, and ignoring the thousands who have been
held in Iseacli “detention” centers before and since. Their

message is clear, as always, that the violence against and caging of
Palestinians is ever normalized. The use of “hostage” vs “prisoner”

is suategic, it one of many well-known and easily seen pieces
of thetorical trickery that perpetuate entrenched Western and
sionist narratives around Paleseine. This difference in descriptive
treatment (not to mention in actual treacment) is strategic
precisely because it employs the cultural signifiers, so prominent

An ALQussam fighte posing with his fans. When the ceasefire went
into ffct, he fghters who hud been fored into hiding were able 10
come out into thesteets and were met with clebration

and ever important in the West, of guil and innocence. To
media consumers i the imperial core, the concept of prisoner
marks guilt at deep, subconscious levl, whereas the narrative
import of hostage is that of innocence and victimhood.

“The implications of pieces of narrative warfare like this are
deep. Istacli citizens are given what western liberalism calls the
presumption of innocence, while Palestinians are always already
guily. I is the same logie that allows the US and Isracl to
sty the genocide to itslf and its constivuencies. Palestinians
are always already seen as criminals and combatants, and in a
way they are,
Bu the western narrative colors this with the same sig

n that the stakes of their resistance are existential

ifiers of
guilt and disposability that it uses against criminalized people
and rebels here.

“This narraive warfare is further evidenced in the way that Isracli
prisoners have been placed a the center of so much, and are treated
as individuals with complex sories and profiles. Palesinians,
however, whether held in detention centers or living outside them
under the reign of bombs and aparcheid laws, ae writien about
and underscood in numbers and statistics. On the morning the
ceasefire went into effect, NPR published an aricle profiling

each of the 33 Israli hostages set o be released with lrge photos
evoking innocence, detailing their ages, genders, citizenship starus,
and miscellancous personal details. Palestinians appear in the
article only as “1900 Palestinians,” despite an anonymous Hamas
offcial being cited as the prin
s guil, individualit vs mass; the narraive distinction s very
evident. And there are endless examples of this intentional narrative
construction. In the spring of 2024, the Intercepe obuained a leaked
internal New York Times memo detaling language parameters

for talking abou the genocide or “conflct,” notble among many
instances of thetorical manipulation is the inscsuction for writes to
avoid the word Palestne except i rare cases.

il source for the article. Innocence

Oakland Abolition & Solidasity * PO. Box 12594 + Oakland, CA 94604 + (510) 406-2500
Beyond the narratives and categories deployed by the oppressors,
where we clarly sce the dehumanization and erasure of
Palestnians, we must challenge the whole foundation of the sutler
colonial state ofIsacl. The framework of the secler legal systems

has no legit
land and colonized indigenous people. The United States, tself

sate basis yet grants srael juridical power over stolen

seuler colonial state, usesits power to continue propping up this
system. One challenge we faceis that we sill find ourselves using

the term “prisoners” for colonized peoples ighting for iberation. If

we are not coninually deconstructing these terms, we perpetuate
the narrative without interruprion.

Itis no wonder that there is long tradition of solidarity beeween
US and Palestinian prisoners. Palesinian prisoners have relably
expressed expl

resistance in the US. This was present during the hunger scrikes
in California in 2011 and 2013, as wellas the national prisoner
surikes in 2016 and 2018. There is an implici and abiding
understanding of shared struggle, shared reality and shared
colonial conditions becween these sets of caprives that continues

tand enthusiastic solidarity with prisoner

CONSEQUENCES AND CONCLUSION

Beyond the ideological aspects and narrarive warfre, the
breakdown of the prisoner exchange says a great deal about the
effeciveness of resistance. The Palestinian fighters never conceded
o capitulated. They maintain a sober understanding of the
existential stakes of the war they are fighting, and the motivations
of their enemics. By holding out in this way they have achieved a
scenario in which each released hostage cams the reedom of 30-
50 Palestnians. In other words, they have succeeded in reversing
the way that the West calculates the worth of the lives of s
ciizens as compared to all those that it dehumanizes and renders
as Ovher. stacl and the US value the lives of sraclis over that of
Palestinians in ways that are obvious in action and narraive. But
Palestinian fighters have forced the to pay for those hostages
disproportionately as well, thus turning the empire’s devaluation of
e lves against it

o much of this feels like scating the obvious. Is crazy-maling
how power can maipulate so thoroughly and so obviousy. s

A flod of people returning to northern Gaza.

like how the city's public ine, here in Oakland, was that the
encampment sweeps are about “protecting public space,” and
they do so by circling public parks with eight feet of chain link
fence. The message s clear: Certain people count as ctizens and
individuals,all others are disposable, marked to be displaced,
imprisoned, or simply annihilated. Fuck that. Down with the
ionist entity and the empire that upholds it

NOTE FROM THE EDITORS:

Hearing back from 'all i what hlps keep us publshing this yearafer year. This newsleter is nothing widhout 'alls ideas,

submissions, and engagement with it on

u own or with cach-other on the inside. Because we had to cut so much content in

this diion in arder to fit n the more time-senstiv picces, we're planning to publish another nevwsletter soon this summer. Wed

love to have your thoughts, writings or artin i

LOVE & SOLIDARITY!

Oakland Abolition & Solidasity * PO. Box 12594 + Oakland, CA 94604 + (510) 406-2500